Act On Your Dream!

To achieve the future you want, you must identify what you really want to do and then act on your dream. Don't just daydream about what you want, identify it, plan how to achieve it, and then act on your dream. That is the path to the success you want.

A year from now, you will wish you had started today.

-- Karen Lamb

A dream is essential...

...but it isn't enough. By itself, it won't accomplish anything but wasting your time and making you wish for something that doesn't exist.

But, it is essential to imagine an existence much greater than what we're living right now!

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

For years, I went through the motions until one day I realized that I was so caught up in day-to-day living that I forgot all about my future. I didn't have any idea what I really wanted to do with my life. How did this happen? How was I supposed to change my life and accomplish those dreams if I didn't know what they were? How could I act on my dreams?

So, I spent some time trying to think of what I would do if money, time, energy, and health were no objects. What would I do if I could do anything I really wanted to do?

The possibilities were so limitless that it scared me!

It takes effort to act on your dream

Eventually, over several weeks' time, I started narrowing my options down to several ideas that inspired me and which would take real effort to attain. To me, there's not much sense in trying to accomplish a life's goal that is too easy.

Perhaps you're luckier than I am and the true dream of your life is a bit more manageable and somewhat easier to achieve.

It requires focus to act on your dream

Some people know just exactly what they want to do when they grow up and it doesn't change. Others of us are much more mercurial and scatter our efforts in many directions as things catch our attention. Sure, it's fun and there are a lot of great experiences that we can live as a result of going off in so many directions, but when you look back on the last 40 years, what is there to show for it, and what is there to look forward to over the next several decades?

Let others help you act on your dream

I decided that I wanted to achieve something that had real meaning for me and that would take real effort to achieve -- both my effort and the effort of many others.

When working together towards a common goal, I believe ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results that we could never achieve on our own.

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Plan to achieve your dream

So, I set out to fully dream my future. I promised myself that I would act on my dream once I learned what it was and then I would work to make it real.

I started breaking it down into goals and milestones. What would it take to accomplish each milestone? Put it on paper. Who would I need to help me. Put it on paper and start asking them. Start building a team. Start making a plan.

Over the last several months, I've been taking action to accomplish something that means a lot to me and which I believe will help many others and be an asset to my community.

One small part of that plan is to help promote the people, organizations, businesses, and events in Cherokee County, NC, where I've been living for the last two decades.

Believe you can do it

Some people think I'm crazy, but I believe I can do anything I set my mind to accomplishing -- and I think you can do the very same thing.

Don't go through life like a zombie! There's more than just sleeping, eating, working, and repeating it ad nauseum.

As soon as you start telling others about your new direction in life and what you're going to do to accomplish it, they'll start trying to hold you back. Perhaps it's just human nature. Perhaps they feel insecure and don't want you to change and leave them behind. Perhaps they're trying to save you from possible disappointment.

They'll tell you that someone else would already have done it if it were a good idea. They'll tell you that you already have too many "irons in the fire" to follow through with something new, especially if it will take significant time and effort. They'll tell you that it's a bad idea. They'll tell you that it won't work. They'll tell you that their friend's sister's ex-husband's cousin's next-door-neighbor tried it years ago and it didn't work. They'll tell you it's a scam. They'll tell you a thousand varied ways you can fail and as many reasons why you shouldn't even try.

Don't listen to all these dream stealers!

You must believe in yourself that you've identified something that is important to you and that is worth the effort you'll have to expend to make it real.

What is your dream?

I'm going to dedicate part of this site, the newsletter, and other resources to help you tell us your dream. It is my hope that many others will find us and we can help each other identify our dreams, share them in public, plan how to achieve them, and then act to achieve our dreams in as little as a year from now.

I named this site AYearFromNow.com because I truly believe that change can be made much more quickly than we've been led to believe.

I've also observed, however, that we'll stick with the "devil we know" rather than launching out into the unknown and potentially facing the "devil we don't know." Some people call this living in our comfort zone.

You can either choose to delay until the effort and pain of continuing as you're going is much more difficult than making a change, or you can decide right now that you're going to make some changes and have a better life a year from now.

My dream is to build the best marketing system for locally-owned small businesses in Murphy, NC

When I first wrote the page for my dream, it was to build Castle Freedom. As time went by, however, I realized that building the castle was a fantasy, not a real goal that I was ready to dedicate myself and my energy to achieving.

In 2007 and 2008, I spent more and more of my time and energy caring for my mother, until she died just before Thanksgiving 2008. That was my real goal, caring for her and keeping her out of a nursing home as long as possible. I just didn't recognize that fact at the time.

This year, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I really want to do - what my real dream is - and I finally realized that I want to promote locally-owned small businesses in my adopted hometown of Murphy, NC.

This is a realistic, achievable goal and it is one that I am working on every single day.

You can read more about our new Murphy Gold Marketing Alliance in the my dream section of this site. I want to share my dream with you and I hope you'll be inspired enough to tell someone else about it.